Overview
- Undercover Kurdish reporters posing as asylum seekers were told they could easily take over shops and profit from selling illegal cigarettes and vapes.
- More than 100 mini-marts, barbers and car washes were linked to the scheme, with ghost directors paid £250–£300 a month to register and front dozens of businesses.
- Asylum seekers and migrants described 14-hour shifts for about £4 an hour, and one shopworker said customers as young as 12 bought tobacco and vapes.
- Evasion methods included dissolving and re-registering firms, hiding stock in “stash cars,” building secret compartments, and advertising businesses for sale via Facebook.
- Named figures such as Hadi Ahmad Ali and Ismael Ahmedi Farzanda have prior penalties; the NCA and partners have carried out raids and the Home Office will review the report, as HMRC estimates illicit tobacco and vape sales cost about £2.2 billion annually.